We are very sorry if your travel arrangements have been affected by the Coronavirus. Our full Coronavirus policy, cancellation and amendment terms are published here and will be kept up to date as events progress. Our customer service teams are here to help and everyone in the company is working flat out to assist customers with alternative travel arrangements and queries.
We are offering customers the opportunity to amend their tickets for free. We will waive all admin fees, so only the difference in the ticket price will be payable (if applicable).
Devising a cancellation policy that is fair to customers but also protects our business and our employees is a difficult balance. Before I move on to our cancellation policy, it is useful to reflect on the legal position for package and non-package bookings.
Hotel + ticket (i.e. a package)
These bookings constitute a package and are covered by the 2018 Package Travel Regulations. Consequently, if the FCO advises against travelling to a country or region and this affects your holiday, then your package provider (i.e. us) will try to offer you alternative arrangements but if this is not possible, or you do not want to accept the alternative arrangements, then you will be entitled to a full refund within 14 days. I am proud that we are one of the few travel companies in the UK that has stuck rigidly to the regulations. All customers who have cancelled their package due to Covid 19 have been refunded in full within 14 days.
Ticket-only purchases (i.e. single element)
These bookings are not covered by the 2018 Package Travel Regulations since attraction tickets do not constitute a package.
Another law that is often mentioned is the 1974 consumer credit act. Section 75 of that act allows you to make a claim for goods or services bought from a retailer who is in breach of contract or has ceased to trade. This law is not relevant in this instance since we have not ceased trading (nor do we intend to) and we have fulfilled the contract as per our terms and conditions.
We have fulfilled the contract as agreed. As per our terms, “We are a ticket agent. That means our obligations to you (other than those which are expressly set out in these conditions) are to provide you with a ticket to enable entry/access to the arrangement(s) detailed on your confirmation.” The attractions are temporarily closed and unlike a date specific event such as a concert, the theme parks are not ‘cancelled’.
Our cancellation policy
In line with the 2018 Package Travel Regulations, we are offering free amendments or full refunds for hotel + ticket packages bought from us for customers travelling during the period affected by Coronavirus.
When deciding on our cancellation and amendment policy for our ticket-only purchases, we looked at our legal obligations and what other major travel companies selling non-air single element travel arrangements were doing.Most major theme parks and villa rental companies were offering free amendments but no refunds.
We are also offering free amendments and in some cases 2020 prices will now apply for 2021 departures. We understand that some people can’t commit to a new travel date. So, if you want to cancel and have paid in full, we will refund you 80% of the money that you have paid us within 2-4 weeks of receiving the tickets back. You should be able to claim the remaining 20% from your travel insurance. This is a significant reduction on our standard cancellation terms in light of this unforeseen and unprecedented circumstances and in order to help our customers at this very difficult time. If you have paid a deposit, you will lose your deposit should you wish to cancel or you can use those funds against another booking in any of the destinations that we sell.
I am pleased that the vast majority of our customers are amending their holiday at no charge. We will be working throughout this crisis and updating our policy on a regular basis. This policy should be your first point of call for any queries.
This is an unprecedented time for the whole world, the travel sector and for you – our customers. We appreciate your understanding. My direct line is published on our website and I am always happy and willing to talk to customers directly.
Best wishes,
Oliver Brendon,
Founder and CEO, AttractionTickets.com
